An Archaeological Analysis of Social Ranking and Residence Groups in Prehistoric Hawaii

The complex social and political systems which characterized aboriginal Polynesia have long been of prominence in the anthropological literature. Certain of these Polynesian political systems, such as the Hawaiian one, represent the maximum levels of social complexity and of rank differentiation which are possible in a society organized on a kin-ship basis. Given these characteristics, it is not surprising that a discussion of Polynesia is regularly included in studies of social and cultural evolution. And it is also not surprising that Polynesian political organization has served as the basis for developing archaeological models of complex social systems in areas as distant as prehistoric Europe (e.g. Renfrew 1973, 1974)